Waseda University in the context of Nishitōkyō, Tokyo

Li Dazhao (simplified Chinese: 李大钊; traditional Chinese: 李大釗; pinyin: Lǐ Dàzhāo; Wade–Giles: Li Ta-chao; 29 October 1889 – 28 April 1927) was a Chinese intellectual, revolutionary, and political activist who co-founded the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) with Chen Duxiu in 1921. He was one of the first Chinese intellectuals to publicly support Bolshevism and the October Revolution, and his writings and mentorship inspired a generation of young radicals, including Mao Zedong.

Born to a peasant family in Hebei province, Li was educated in modern schools in China and later at Waseda University in Japan. He rose to prominence during the New Culture Movement as the chief librarian and a professor of history at Peking University. In this role, he influenced many student activists and transformed his office into a hub for Marxist discussion. After the May Fourth Movement of 1919, he helped organize some of China's first communist study groups.

Tanzan Ishibashi (石橋 湛山, Ishibashi Tanzan; 25 September 1884 – 25 April 1973) was a Japanese journalist and politician who served as prime minister of Japan from 1956 to 1957.

Born in Tokyo, Ishibashi became a journalist after graduating from Waseda University in 1907. In 1911, he joined the Tōyō Keizai Shimpo ("Eastern Economic Journal") and served as its editor-in-chief from 1925 to 1946 and president from 1941. In the 1930s, Ishibashi was one of the few critics of Japanese imperialism, and became well known as a liberal economist. From 1946 to 1947, Ishibashi served as finance minister under Shigeru Yoshida. He was elected into the National Diet in 1947, but was purged for openly opposing the U.S. occupation policies; he returned to the Diet in 1952, after which he allied with Ichiro Hatoyama and served as his minister of international trade and industry. Ishibashi succeeded Hatoyama as prime minister in 1956, simultaneously serving as director of the Defense Agency, but resigned soon after due to ill health.

Marquess Ōkuma Shigenobu (Japanese: 大隈 重信; 11 March 1838 – 10 January 1922) was a Japanese statesman who was a leading figure in the Meiji and Taishō eras of Japan, serving as Prime Minister in 1898, and from 1914 to 1916. A key advocate for the adoption of Western science and culture in Japan, Ōkuma was a central figure in the country's modernization. He founded the political party Rikken Kaishintō and was an early proponent of parliamentary democracy. He is also the founder of Waseda University.

Born in Hizen Province (modern-day Saga Prefecture), Ōkuma was an early advocate for the abolition of the feudal system and the establishment of a constitutional government. As an "outsider" from Saga, he was a rare exception in the Satsuma-Chōshū clique that dominated the Meiji government. He joined the government in 1868 and rose to become Minister of Finance, a position in which he unified the nation's currency, created a national budget, and established the national mint. Following a political crisis in 1881, he was ousted from the government by his rivals. In opposition, he founded the Rikken Kaishintō and became one of the most prominent public figures championing a British-style parliamentary system.

Pairs of schools, colleges and universities, especially when they are close to each other either geographically or in their areas of specialization, often establish a university or college rivalry with each other over the years. This rivalry, which is frequently synonymous with a sports rivalry, can extend to both academics and athletics, and sometimes even politics, the middle being typically better known to the general public. These schools place an added emphasis on emerging victorious in any event that includes their rival. This may include the creation of a special trophy or other commemoration of the event. While many of these rivalries have arisen spontaneously, some have been created by college officials in efforts to sell more tickets and support their programs.

The oldest modern sporting rivalry between two schools is Eton v Harrow, a cricket match between Eton College and Harrow School that was first held in 1805 at Lord's Cricket Ground, England, and has taken place annually since 1822. The earliest known association football match between two schools was Eton v Harrow in 1834, among several other notable rivalries in English public school football games. The oldest university-level intercollegiate sporting rivalries are between the University of Oxford and University of Cambridge in England: The University Match in cricket, which was first held in 1827, at Lord's; and The Boat Race, which was first contested in 1829 on the River Thames in London. Oxford-Cambridge rivalry influenced college rivalries in the United States and other countries around the world.

Tarō Hirai (平井 太郎, Hirai Tarō; October 21, 1894 – July 28, 1965), better known by the pen name Edogawa Ranpo or Edogawa Rampo (江戸川 乱歩), was a Japanese author and critic who played a major role in the development of Japanese mystery and thriller fiction. Many of his novels involve the detective hero Kogoro Akechi, who in later books was the leader of a group of boy detectives known as the "Boy Detectives Club" (少年探偵団, Shōnen tantei dan).

Ranpo was an admirer of Western mystery writers, and especially of Edgar Allan Poe. His pen name is a rendering of Poe's name. Other authors who were special influences on him were Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, whom he attempted to translate into Japanese during his days as a student at Waseda University, and the Japanese mystery writer Ruikō Kuroiwa.

Nobutoshi Kihara (木原 信敏 Kihara Nobutoshi, 14 October 1926 – 13 February 2011) was an engineer at Sony, best known for his work on the original Walkman cassette-tape player in the 1970s and was commonly called Mr. Walkman (Nobutoshi Kihara) in the press.

Born in Tokyo, Kihara attended Waseda University, then joined Sony's predecessor, Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation in 1947 as a new university graduate. He retired from Sony in 2006.